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East Gardiner’s fate in council is up in the air, despite Tory

Mayor John Tory's control over council is on the line early in his mayoralty as his biggest test yet comes to council next week

This part of the Gardiner Expressway between Jarvis and Carlaw will have its future debated next week at city council, and neither a partial ramp alteration/repair nor a full removal is a cinch to win the day. (Marcus Oleniuk / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) does not have a lock on city council voting to maintain and rebuild the east Gardiner Expressway, despite a big public push and intense lobbying of his council colleagues ahead of next week’s vote.

A Star survey of councillors finds them virtually deadlocked as they are lobbied by Tory staffers going office to office and competing councillors who want to replace the Gardiner with a waterfront boulevard.

“It’s quite a battlefield up here on the second floor of city hall, with 45 council members and their staff trying to convince each other,” said Councillor Gord Perks (open Gord Perks's policard), a leading proponent of the boulevard option.

“I don’t think either side has yet achieved a majority.”

Council is expected to choose either the “hybrid option” — maintaining the elevated link to the Don Valley Parkway, removing the ramps to Logan Ave. and building new ramps at Cherry St. — or full removal and replacement with an eight-lane boulevard that changes to six lanes east of the Don River.

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Hybrid proponents are warning of major commuter delays if the expressway comes down, and say their plan still opens waterfront land for development.

Boulevard fans say traffic concerns are overblown, that their option frees up more land and is cheaper by $96 million in short-term capital costs and $458 million when you factor in 100-year maintenance.

Both sides have cited various studies to support their positions, including a city staff report which did not side with either option.

The Star tally has both sides with about 18 councillors either solid in support or strongly leaning to one option, and a pivotal nine still undecided or unwilling to publicly disclose their choice.

The vote will be the first big test of Tory’s mayoralty. He stepped out early to back a hybrid option he says is vital to limiting increases in commute times.

It would be unusual and embarrassing for a popular mayor early in his mandate to spend so much political capital and lose a big vote, and would spell the end of his honeymoon period in the post-Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's policard) era.

Councillors Paul Ainslie (open Paul Ainslie's policard) and Mary-Margaret McMahon (open Mary-Margaret McMahon's policard), both members of Tory’s hand-picked executive, are committed to removing the Gardiner and will vote that way next week. Councillor Ana Bailao, who also sits on executive, is “reviewing” all the available information but is “leaning” towards the boulevard option, her office said.

Scarborough Councillor Jim Karygiannis (open Jim Karygiannis's policard) first told the Star he would vote hybrid, but then asked to be moved into the undecided category.

“I am doing a poll in my ward in order to get the input from my constituents on East Gardiner ...,” he wrote in an email. “Personally as an engineer who majored on transportation studies I have my views. Constituents will have to be listen to. I will make my decision over the weekend.”

Of those apparent fence-sitters or those yet to respond to the Star, six are Tory’s executive members who could be expected to fall in line.

Councillor Rob Ford is the only one publicly backing the option of maintaining the Gardiner exactly as it is. His assistant Dan Jacobs said the former mayor calls it “vital piece of Toronto’s roadwork infrastructure.”

Ford might inject some extra drama into what is already expected to be an exciting meeting that starts Wednesday. Although home recovering from cancer surgery, he has said he hopes to attend council to “save the Gardiner.”

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